Violating the Dead
by thestartling
Summary: Memories are films about ghosts. A collection of Bleach drabbles and microfics. A melange of genres, styles, characters and pairings.
1. Violating the Dead

_Summary: One-shot/fic-bit done for 31(underscore)days at LiveJournal. Spoilers for volume 3, chapter 19.

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**Violating the Dead  
**(theme- september 29; thoughts of a dying atheist)

He had never noticed how beautiful the sky could look.

Well, he had, in a way. Once when he was very little, and she was still very warm. Once when he saw it through her hair for a brief moment- that which later became like an eternity. Once when his mind was on overdrive, willing her, begging her to just move. His eyes stared at the sky until they became too blurry to distinguish what he was looking at.

(After the ambulance had disappeared, his father tried to drag him home. But Ichigo would not leave.

"I wanna see her. She'll be sad if we don't tell her to be safe."

Isshin had made an expression he would later wish he had hidden. Then turned his head and said nothing, tugging on his son's arm once more. Ichigo planted his seat right where they stood.

"Get up, Ichigo."

"When Mama comes.")

But she never came.

And now he wonders what he was expecting. Her, or a ghost? Had he known then that could have been the last time he could ever see her? Had he known it was time to say goodbye? Or maybe now he's just mixing up the present and the past. Maybe his eyes are still blurry.

The sun is setting, and instead of a darkening blue it rises to purple and pink, before, as it reaches the sun, becoming a deep auburn shade. He watches until everything goes dark.  
--

"Get up, fool."

"...Suppose I like it down here."

"I'm sure you do, but I'm equally sure others like to walk there."

"Oh yeah, right--" A foot landed on his face before he could finish:

No heart warming stories.

**The End **

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_Notes: A bit different because I've been working around with styles and experimenting and stuff. _

_Title and last sentence are credited to Kubo himself._


	2. What terror there will be

_Summary: Drabble done for 31(underscore)days at Livejournal. Spoilers for those not in the Soul Society arc and don't know who Matsumoto Rangiku and Ichimaru Gin are._

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**What terror there will be**  
(theme- february 20; the blood that drips from heaven)

The glint of steel was there and his glowing eyes laughed behind it. It rained, and the smell was enough to make her retch but she could not move from that spot. She wanted to reach out to him—Why, why?

Because power is a seductive mistress and you were not enough. A whisper and a blade shot forward.

But she jerked awake, her legs tangled in her comforter and sweat beading on her forehead. Her hair clung to her face. Her breath was ragged and remained so as she darted her eyes across the room, straining them to see through every shadow.

It had been a long time since a dream had scared her this much, and it was a while before she realized that it was in fact just that. A silly nightmare, an illusion, a trick of her own restless mind.

She closed her eyes and lay her head back down against her pillow. She counted her breaths until they slowed.

_A whisper: 1, 2, 3... drip._

Drip? She opened her eyes.

Red was on the ceiling.

_Drip._

A whisper (_Ikorose_).

_Drip._

Red was on her bed.

_Drip._

Her hand fell to the floor.

**The End**


	3. Noctiluca

_Summary: Drabble for 31(underscore)days at Livejournal. No real spoilers, because it doesn't mention who she's thinking of, but you won't understand it if you haven't read up to Kaien's introduction._

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**Noctiluca**  
(theme- february 24; candlelight under the waters)

She sat, her knees tucked under her, in the exact spot he died. In the exact spot he held her, enveloping her tiny frame with his body, apologizing for something she did. The pain remains clear in her heart, but the memories are even clearer; they engulf her.

There were three more things surrounding her now: puddles, fireflies, and grief. She couldn't determine exactly what the fireflies were attracted to – the grief or the puddles – but she silently welcomed their company, though she dare not watch their beautiful glows, their quirky flight, their liveliness.

Instead she stared at the puddle in front of her, watching their reflections through half-lidded eyes. The water dulled them, and she wryly twisted that thought into a portrayal of herself. But no, she shouldn't compare herself to fireflies – she wasn't dull, she was gone.

She then outstretched her hand and began to strum her fingers against one's reflection, only to find it wasn't a reflection.

**The End**


	4. Spinning On An Axis

_Summary: Yet another drabble for 31(underscore)days at Livejournal. Spoilers for volume 3. From the point of view of the Kurosaki neighbors.

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**Spinning On An Axis**  
(theme- march 5; a good universe next door)

They noticed how things had become way more hectic when the woman of their household had died. It was a sad tale, an awful tale; each family had come to pay their respects on that day and the next. But none except them knew so well how terrible their loss truly was.

They remembered at the dinner table a timeline of the Kurosaki's lives before the tragedy; They remembered when the two newlyweds purchased their home and clinic, she directing the movers as to where the furniture went, and him lazing about until she noticed and rebuked his smirks. They remembered the leisurely strolls the couple took with their first newborn child, his hair a bright mess. They remembered the funny incidences with her twin pregnancy. They remembered.

To anyone else, it was alarming over in the house next door. Guests would arrive at their parties and hear the teenage boy yowling from the other side of the fence, and turn to them and wonder, "What's killing the poor child over there?"

And the Kurosaki's neighbors would simply smile and look towards that clinic and say, "They suffer a loss."

"Of sanity?" someone might quip playfully.

And they'd reply, "In a way. But it's never boring."

**The End**


	5. Those Ghastly Little Traps

_Summary: You guessed it- another drabble for 31(underscore)days. I can't help it! It fuels my muse so much. And besides, I don't hear any of you complaining. Spoilers if you don't know Yoruichi's identity.

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**Those Ghastly Little Traps**  
(theme- march 9; nothing quite so least as truth)

He's always liked to philosophize right after sex. It's a rather strange habit, except for the fact that it is he who does it, which reverts it into something not quite so strange. At least that's how she views it, but she hasn't ever said anything because it's in her nature that she'd rather watch him squirm.

In fact, aside from the sex, she looks forward to each night as a chance to cut in on his wonderful calculations, reminding him of the things she thinks are rather obvious and that he's overlooking.

Tonight he spoke against one of these remarks, saying, "Honesty is a virtue."

But she licked her lips and purred, "Which are boring." And, of course, it's hard to argue with the cat that's got your tongue, and so: to the victor goes the spoils.

**The End**


	6. Works of Art Painted Black

_Summary: Another for 31(underscore)days. Spoilers only if you don't know Gin and Matsumoto. Set in their pre-academy years.

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Works of Art Painted Black**  
(theme- march 11; to fabricate unknown-ness)

He liked dead things.

Once, they came across the carcass of a dead crow in the straw fields. He said he'd watched a cat get it days ago and that he was now curious as to how long it would take for it to decompose.

Matsumoto curled her lip and stepped back, not even able to really look at it without a retch crawling up her trachea. She turned to sit over by a pond and watch the koi fish. He allowed her to leave him there, his legs tucked under him as he squatted low towards his preferred spectacle.

By sunset he was beside her again, smelling of decay, as if he had rolled in the corpse like a dog might. The smell seemed to soak through everything; her hair, her clothes, her skin that was beginning to crawl.

This moment became the first where she thought on how his allure was so similar to death's own. It would not be the last.

**The End**


	7. Auribus teneo lupum

_Summary: Another for 31(underscore)days. Kind of spoilers for what's inside Ichigo._

_Thought the 15th would be an appropriate day for Ichigo. Title is a latin phrase that means "I had a wolf by the ears," which indicates that one is in a dangerous situation where both holding on and letting go could be deadly.

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Auribus teneo lupum**  
(theme- march 15; the silent whys of a such a deathlessness)

He lies panting – no, trying to get up – no, spiraling into unconsciousness. He's falling backwards now; his eyes are bleeding now. Through the haze he can barely see the scarlet puddle drowning her pale face, and he thinks that he cannot let himself fail, he cannot let him get out, he cannot let himself—

But then he realizes he's not the center of his world anymore, that he never was, that his sun was taken long ago and orbit lost and now he's adopted another one and he can't, _he just can't_ lose his new tether to reality.

His eyes stop bleeding; he's charging now.

**The End**


	8. On Deaths blade lie many a flower curled

_Summary: Yep. Another for 31(underscore)days. Maybe I should stop repeating myself and just let ya assume that's where all of these will be from until I say otherwise? (Laughs)_

_Spoilers for recent chapters, where Rukia's zanpakutou is revealed. Set mostly pre-Bleach, though.

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On Death's blade lie many a flower curled**  
(theme- march 20; eyes which are really petals)

"I like it when my body is with your body," she whispered, face pale, lips pale, eyes sparkling in the thrill of their dance.

Nejibana remained characteristic to her name in the form of a twisty smile, before she uttered, "I believe I have found what you are like."

To this Shirayuki tilted her head, causing her hair to cascade over her naked shoulders like an avalanche; graceful and wondrous but still a demonstration of how swift her element was, a reminder of how slyly you could be penetrated by its force. But though however true, this was not what Nejibana had thought to say.

She reached out her hand and gently took a lock of Shirayuki's hair, kneading it between her pink-stained fingertips, and said, "You are of the stillness over raging waters; of the shadows a clean glass window makes; of the white in rainbows." She smirked.

Shirayuki blushed, then did so hiss, "What nonsense, the words you say to stir your combatant's poise!"

But Nejibana curved her lips, caught the white princess by her sleeve and purred, "And also, the coolness of your smile is as a stirring of birds between my arms, but I should wish to, rather than anything... capture your kiss."

In this moment, Shirayuki quivered against her opponent, unable to move – stilled, just as the force holding her. She could only focus upon Nejibana's eyes which are really petals which are really eyes.

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Later, Shirayuki keeps these moments secret, close to her heart. Her grief does not allow her to open her little pandora's box at this time, and besides, her mistress is crying again, so she must tend to her.

Many decades later, Shirayuki still harbors these feelings, these memories, and she tells pieces of them to her new companion as they walk the corners of sideways skyscrapers. She is not sure how long she will be trapped here, and it scares her when she wonders, sometimes, whether she was sucked into this place or whether she leapt in eagerly.

Not much longer, but later still, Shirayuki reveals her stories to her mistress when they are reunited. They come as no surprise to her mistress, for her mistress was present at each occurrence. But Shirayuki does not shed a single tear when her mistress clings to her and sobs, exclaiming that she understands, that she wishes to see those eyes again, too.

Because Shirayuki knows her mistress is not thinking of the petals, but of the stem that had once wielded them.

**The End**

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Notes: Shirayuki is the name of Rukia's zanpakutou, and Nejibana is Kaien's zanpakutou. It has not been revealed in canon as to whether their identities are "female," so I took a bit of liberties with them._


	9. Your diary of ripped pages

_Summary: Spoilers for Soul Society stuff.

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_**Your diary of ripped pages**  
(theme- march 26; she being brand new)

Unohana Retsu's eyes closed at the young prodigy's question, perhaps to shut her sight away from the fear she sensed in his voice. But he could not hide his worry from her and she could not ignore it; it, being as apparent as moisture hiding in the air after rainfall, engulfed them.

"I have mended what I can," she answered, her eyelids folding open to study his face, which to her seemed to have aged dramatically in the course of only a few days.

Hitsugaya lowered his eyes to the edges of the fourth division captain's kimono, straining his ears to hear the patient's soft breath on the other side of the paper door.

"Everything," he whispered at last, but it seemed almost a question. Unohana glanced towards his eyes, met them briefly. She then exhaled, politely tired, and nodded, but he had already turned and left from the doorway before he could hear her say: "Sadly, I am not the type of doctor who can heal a broken heart."

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Many in Soul Society came to visit Hinamori in her bed. She was unconscious for a long while, and offerings of flowers and sweets lined the walls of her room and near her headboard.

One afternoon, in a bustling commotion, Vice Captain Matsumoto entered the room and left a beautiful tree of plum blossoms in a pot right upon the nightstand, so that it hovered gently above Hinamori's face and left small shadows across her lashes when the sun beat down through the window.

That same night, Captain Hitsugaya came and saw the tree. He since then took it upon himself to tend to it each night he visited. But once, when he was distracted by the way the moonlight glided across his friend's pale skin, he snipped a blossom off and it fell against her fingertips, and her eyelids quivered, and for a moment his breath caught and he was still.

But she never woke up. So every night, he came back in and unleashed a blossom, hoping that it might somehow be of help.

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Two weeks later, it works. But Hinamori will not speak to anyone, and finds a perverse joy in ripping apart every petal that floats onto her bedspread.

Every day now, Tobiume sits alone with Momo in her recovery room. The zanpakutou never brings up Aizen, or really any matter of consequence; she just chatters idly about nothing in particular, waiting patiently for a flicker of life, a glimmer of hope, a spark of _anything_ to shine in those empty eyes.

**The End**


	10. Wanted and Bound

_Summary: Spoilers if you don't know Yoruichi's identity and Urahara's zanpakutou's identity.

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Wanted and Bound**  
(theme- april 9; hunting with cats)

Benihime was never one to share and still isn't and, as he correctly predicts, never will be.

Yoruichi is exactly the same in that respect, as Urahara knows she's fully characteristic to the cat she is: that she's more than a bit selfish, that she likes having her prey all to herself.

So of course he knows it's futile to hope either of them will get along, or at least come to terms with the fact that both will be with him despite the others' opinions.

But he's never hoped that anyway, so it's not really a huge matter of consequence. The only thing on his mind now is how to keep his limbs, preferably attached.

**The End**

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Notes: Benihime is not shown in canon except as a sword. Liberties were taken._


	11. Breathing in my sleepy girl

_Summary: No spoilers if you know the Shun Shun Rikka. This features Orihime and Tsubaki. Title from lyrics in "Breathing You In" by The Whitlams.

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**Breathing in my sleepy girl**  
(theme- april 13; when are you going to love you as much as I do?)

She is brokenhearted. She tries not to shed a tear, but she cannot hide her despair from him; he sees that river raging in her mind, threatening to snap her dam in half and drown her.

And he sees how it's rising, oh is it rising. With every day she chokes her feelings back, the core of her soul floods a little more. He is sometimes surprised their feet are not wet by now.

"Hey," he says tonight, "hey. If they make you cry, they're not worth your time. If...he makes you cry, I mean," and all she can do is smile (_genuinely, gravely, intensely, mournfully, movingly, passionately, profoundly, sadly_) sweetly, (_bitter_) sweetly.

He lives to protect her and the ones she loves and nothing more is expected of him. But it is his one wish that he could just breathe in the scent of her hair and not have to smell the salt on her cheeks.

**The End**


	12. Truth, slipping through the cracks

_Summary:_ Momo. Tobiume. In response to 31(underscore)days.

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Truth, slipping through the cracks like acid  
**(theme- august 22; sword tells more truth than books; its parting wisdom from vanity)

Hinamori Momo does not speak after waking from her coma. The days go by smoothly for her; staring out the window, tracing the patterns of the hospital sheets, taking medications that only heal the outside pains.

She does not answer questions, or respond to the servant-nurse that checks on her and fluffs her pillow, that cheerily opens wide the curtains and exclaims, "Such a nice day, Hinamori-san. The flowers on that precipice look beautiful in the sunlight. Wouldn't you agree?"

She lifts her gaze from her lap. The servant-nurse can sense this without turning to look, and she smiles at the gesture, just a little bit proud of herself for eliciting even that small response.

"Get out," a voice says, sharply, hotly. The servant-nurse continues to smile, bows apologetically. She leaves.

A naked girl, tall with ash grey skin, with red red eyes, saunters over to the window, her plum colored hair shining in the light. She tilts her head to the side as she pivots around slowly. Despite the crown of blossoms and twigs combed through it, her hair flickers around her, fanning in every direction sharply. Her red red eyes pierce her mistress, and she smiles sweetly.

Her breath smells like cinnamon when she speaks. "Why did you ask me to make her leave?" she tempts. "It is sad, that you want to be cooped up here like this, in this little cold room. I'm here, all light and warm and irresistable, here for you, Momo-chan. And yet you resist my advice. Why, Momo-chan?"

Her hands spindle upwards to unleash the curtains, and the room becomes dark again.

"You know why I like this; to be the only shining thing in it. For us to be the only shining things, in this darkness." The girl sighs and Momo feels a weight on the bed. It comes closer and closer, until a smooth warmth is pushed flush against her body.

"You are so dull now, Momo-chan," she whispers. "Won't you come shine with me? Won't you come burn with me?"

"I do burn," Momo says angrily and turns her mouth to her sword's jaw.

"Yes," Tobiume concedes. "Yes, but the difference is: I was speaking metaphorically. You are not."

"It's time you stop veiling my eyes with silly metaphors, then."

"I would never mislead you. You should remember that I am not Aizen."

"Get out," a voice says, but this one is wet and broken.

**The End**

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_Notes: _Honestly, I don't know if I like this all too much. But it's the first thing I've written in a long time, and the first Bleach thing I've written in ages. So, here ya go. Not quite a steak & lobster dinner, but something, alright. 

Oh, and thanks for 2,000 hits! Means a lot. :)


	13. penetrating

_February 07 the white lady  
bleach, rukia & shirayuki_

It's not much; only a tiny moment, and not one that's canon. (shrug)

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penetrating**

The first night Rukia met her zanpakutou spirit was the night Kaien-dono died. No, the night he was killed. By her. And, she slowly realized, by the lady in front of her, standing there and watching quietly. Blood smeared her white silk kimono; smeared, swished, and then was gone. Rukia shivered at the drops of rain trickling into the collar of her robes and down her back. Again, at the cold breath on her neck. Again, at the fingers curling around her own, frozen to the hilt.

"It's over," her zanpakutou whispered, and Rukia hated herself for feeling relieved.


End file.
